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Council mulls new charges as it debates £64m of cuts

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by Damian Fantato, Council Reporter, also covering Oxford city centre. Call me on 01865 425429

CUTS to Oxfordshire County Council’s budget will be discussed this afternoon amid protests from activists concerned about their impact.

The county council has to make cuts of £64m to its budget after its central government funding was slashed.

This means £1.5m of funding will be controversially cut from homelessness services.

The county council will also look at whether to charge for fire precaution advice and for people to advertise on highway electronic message boards, and whether to take on new powers to fine motorists.

These are just some of the ways the council could raise more money to tackle the cuts, its finance boss has said.

Arash Fatemian

In a report submitted to tomorrow’s cabinet meeting, county councillor Arash Fatemian, pictured, said: “The group has focused on reviewing the scope for increasing existing charges, investigating discretionary services that could be charged for where charges are not currently levied, and identifying skills or services that could be offered out.

“More work is needed to explore some of the suggestions put forward and the group is looking to continue its work ahead of the next planning round.”

Mr Fatemian said the council was only interested in charging businesses who are looking for “added value” from the fire and rescue service and who are treating it as a free consultancy service.

He said the authority is not interested in “charging people to stay safe”.

Mr Fatemian recommended that the council writes a letter to the Government asking it to remove some restrictions on local authorities generating income.

This, he says, would allow the authority charge commercial organisations for fire precaution advice and allow people to advertise on highway electronic message boards.